Ford Studying Space Robots to Master V2X

Why would Ford want to talk with robots in space? How would that be relevant to the future of V2X, which is taking place on earth?

MADISON, Wis. -- I recently came across Ford Motor Company’s announcement claiming that the company is studying space robots for connected-vehicle communications.

Call me slow on the uptake but at first glance I failed to make connections between space robots and vehicle-to-vehicle/vehicle-to-infrastructure communications. Seriously, why would a carmaker want to talk with robots in space? How would that be relevant to the future of V2X, which is obviously taking place on earth?

I finally had a chance to interrogate Oleg Gusikhin, technical leader in systems analytics for Ford. He was fresh back from vacation earlier this week.

Gusikhin explained that Ford’s main interest is in understanding the theoretical fundamentals of a “delay-tolerant communication network.”

He told me to picture a number of robots in a space station. As humans on earth send commands to these robots, communications traveling the long distance will inevitably suffer delays. In the space station, however, all the communication (between a gateway installed inside a space station and robots, and among robots themselves, typically in a mesh network) takes place in real time.

Drawing a parallel
Communications in space parallel the communication challenges likely to be encountered by V2X, said Gusikhin.

Back on earth, consider a vehicle that has just crashed, he noted. It needs to make an emergency call. But the accident took place in an area where no cellular signals are available, Gusikhin said. The vehicle needs to find another means of communication (other than a straight cell phone call) to report the accident and get help.

Gusikhin described the future of V2X as based not a single, but “multiple communication protocols, networks, and channels,” ranging from Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC), LTE, and/or 3G pre-installed inside a car, to On-star–like services and the driver’s own mobile phone. The disabled vehicle could automatically send an emergency message to another vehicle passing by via DRSC. In turn, that car could automatically route the signal to nearby V2I-equipped traffic lights, or find a different cellular tower to communicate.

In short, the future of V2X depends on the development of a system in which vehicles can figure out the most appropriate signal, protocol, channel, and network to use in relaying messages in the most efficient and reliable manner -- depending on how important the message.

Telematics students and Professor Kurochkin

In association with Ford, students from the Telematics Department of St. Petersburg Polytechnic University and Professor Mikhail Kurochkin analyze model space rover movements.(Photo: Ford Motor Co.)

To investigate connected-vehicle communications, and to aid in the advancement of emergency vehicle communication methods, “we are studying a multi-protocol gateway system that can be put to work in a delay-tolerant network,” explained Gusikhin.

To that end, Ford in January began a three-year research partnership with the telematics department of Russia's St. Petersburg Polytechnic University in its association with that country’s space industry. The goal of this relationship is “to analyze space-based robotic communications systems for vehicle mesh networks to aid in mobility solutions,” according to Ford.

Ford and the St. Petersburg team are about to publish a paper detailing the results of their first-year joint project, said Gusikhin.

Using the knowledge gained from analyzing the space robots, Ford engineers could then develop an algorithm that, when integrated into the V2X system, creates messages that route through the appropriate network.

In the V2X world, emergency calls aren’t the only likely signals, however. Just as the earthbound send a host of different signals to remotely control robots in space, V2X will send remotely controlled signals to “optimize vehicles’ powertrain or engine parameters,” said Gusikhin, in hopes of reducing traffic accidents and ease congestion. V2X will enable vehicles to communicate with each other and with buildings, traffic lights, the “cloud” and other systems to deliver messages or detect and respond to imminent collision warnings.

Describing the first-year results as successful, Gusikhin told EE Times, “We’re also considering adding new partners” to the project.

@MP, these are really excellent questions. I am in Japan this week and I am learning how some of the Japanese companies are planning to deal with privacy issues in the context of "big data" necessary for intelligent transportation system.

Hi Junko, the more we dig into this, my intrigue increases! And more issues surface... I suppose the folks in V2X may have already gone thru the exercises some of which the rest of us beginning to identify and discuss, perhaps duplicating in that process.

If we make all vehicles enabled with Vehicular Area Networks (VANs), how does one implement V2V networking (a la M2M) without first addressing privacy issues? There will have to be two layers to a M2M network in that situation -one internal and the other external which can be shared for traffic management, emergencies, etc. Speaking of the external layer, will the governments start some legislations where each vehicle owner will be mandated to share the external layer of vehicular M2M? I see this as an inevitable reality in the years to come as cities gear up with smart infrastructure.

Hi Junko, you bring up more interesting points. If emergency communication using a M2M model is one of the premises for V2X, I think there are multiple alternatives in addition to M2M.

One could also use use satellite communication for emergencies similar to devices like LoJack that can be triggered to send a data packet of information on the location and nature of emergency.

Though not exactly analogous, one of the methodologies that may be applicable to V2X is the one that is quite well researched -routing protocols for cognitive radio that make the best use of white space in the wireless spectrum.

@Sheetal.Pandey, honestly speaking, it had never occurred to me how the communication with space robots had anything to do with the communication among vehicles and infrastructure on earth, as I wrote in this blog.

But as MP pointed out, I think how the fruits of the joint reserach will be turned into commecial results still remains to be seen.

As the Ford's engineer explained, the purpose of the joint project is in the "higher-level, fundamental understanding of multi-protocol networks."

While much of the initial V2V, V2I testings had been focused on Dedicated Short Range Communications, many automakers today believe that communication among vehicles and to and from the infrastructure won't be limited to a single protocol wireless network.

They feel it's essential to build theoretical understandings on how different messages and signals should be more efficiently routed among multi-protocol networks.

That's interesting to see what ford is planning for future. I agree this is the most needed or desired thing in 5 -10 years from now. Quite an appreciative thought process and who else but ford doing it. This reminds me of hollywood flick "avatar".
Also with the ongoing trend with so many robots being sent to space this seems to be something well thought over for the future.

Junko, was there more to this article? It seems the writeup some what abruptly stops after "We're also considering adding new partners" to the project. Otherwise the article is intriguing, I wonder how they will realize commercial gains from this. There has been plenty of research done already based on cooperative game theory, etc.